Category Archives: reviews

Victoria of Many Faces, Vol. 3

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By Syuu and Nanna Fujimi. Released in Japan as “Tefuda ga Ōme no Victoria” by MF Books. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Andria McKnight.

With the first two books, they felt self-contained, and yet the series continued on. This third book very pointedly leaves several plot threads open for the future, and so naturally there hasn’t been a new book in almost two years – we’re caught up. (The webnovel is ongoing, but by now we know how little that means). It’s a shame, as this is still a fun little series, even if its core is getting rather serious. The series started with Chloe, aka Victoria, aka Anna, trying to escape from a forced life of espionage, to the point where she literally fled the country and then the continent to get away. By the end of this third volume, both she and her husband are strong-armed into working for the government again – with the prince essentially saying that it’s OK because he won’t use their powers for evil. What’s more, their incredibly talented adopted daughter Nonna, who can’t seem to stop learning how to be a top spy, is probably also going to become a top spy. getting out is hard.

While things have settled down for Victoria, Jeffrey and Nonna, things are very much not settled down in the kingdom they live in. The discovery of the gold mine has led the country whose doorstep it’s on to start making rumbling noises about war. What’s more, Prince Carlos’ wife Delphine has had two attempts on her life recently. And Delphine’s body double was accidentally outed on a recent spy mission and her face is disfigured enough that she won’t be able to do the job in time. So Victoria is asked to step in, be Delphine’s body double, and find out who’s trying to kill her. Meanwhile, Jeffrey and Clark (you remember Clark, the childhood friend in love with Nonna?) are going to the border to negotiate peace. All of this leaves Nonna a free to be an agent of chaos, which is pretty much the best reason to read the book.

Victoria is still the star, and does a lot of great stuff here, but Nonna is the main reason this book remains fun rather than harrowing. Victoria’s plot is relatively serious, and ends up rebounding on her at the end when she proves to be too good at bonding with Princess Delphine. Nonna, meanwhile, is not allowed to go to the palace because her mother is undercover, so ends up curing her grandmother of her mental and physical frailties by virtue of accidental physical therapy, learning how to fight even better and also pick locks, and of course end up involved in the palace stuff anyway when a riot breaks out during a festival and she basically parkours her way into the thick of things. The most annoying part of the book is that Clark proposes to her, and she accepts (though specifies it needs to wait till she’s older, thank God)… but we don’t see this scene, we just see Nonna telling her parents about it. Given there are multiple narrators in this book, what gives?

Now, I do think we will get a 4th book soon, mostly as there’s an anime coming. For now, though, please enjoy the plight of a woman who just wants to settle down and raise sheep but her daughter has turned into a ninja.

Her Royal Highness Seems to Be Angry, Vol. 2

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By Kou Yatsuhashi and Mito Nagashiro. Released in Japan as “Ojou Denka wa Ookari no You desu” by Overlap Bunko. Released in North America by Tokyopop. Translated by Katie Kimura.

This is one of those books that’s stacked towards the back, and for the first, oh, three-quarters of it, I was worried we’d have another volume that did not live up to its title. I mean, don’t worry, Leticiel does end up going to town on a bunch of high school bully girls, but that’s still in her standard stoic, unemotional way. Heck, even when she’s in a battle to the death against supposedly long extinct enemies, she’s cool as a cucumber. But thankfully, there’s still her absolutely terrible family to content with, and their actions near the end show that, thank God, Her Royal Highness FINALLY Seems to Be Angry. That said, that rage may end up attracting attention she doesn’t want, as we lose one prince but gain another, and I think I can define him as “intrigued”. But yeah, for the most part in this volume Her Royal Highness is dealing with the traditional enemy of high school girls: exams.

After the events of the last book, the prince, Rocheford, is sequestered at the palace and apparently barely coherent. The King apologizes to Leticiel, and asks what she wants. She’s quick to take advantage of that: she wants 1) her engagement broken, 2) a house where she can live apart from her family, 3) a research lab, and 4) most importantly, access to any book in the kingdom. She gets all this but the last – she can’t see the forbidden archive, but otherwise everything is good. (The book strongly implies the answers she needs are in the forbidden archive.) So now she’s on her own (with her maid and butler, of course), and ready to go back to avoiding classes, though she does take the time to help an abused young classmate with “too much magic” disease from being bullied. Unfortunately, just because she gets away from her terrible mother doesn’t mean she stops being terrible…

The most intriguing part of the book is Drossell, who is not quite as dead as I may have thought after reading Book 1. We get a little more information about her in this book, partly as Leticiel has started to have memory flashes of her “Drossell” life, which mostly include playing with a young boy named Alec. More intriguing are the POV chapters from her twin sister Christa, where we hear more about what broke their relationship, why Christa started to get fanatically jealous of her, and what happened to Alec. It’s interesting because it definitely implies that Leticiel is going to have to make piece with her Drossell body, but also as it appears that one reason everyone’s sort of OK with her complete personality change is that this is the SECOND time it’s happened. I had assumed Christa was going to be the traditional evil sibling in this series, but I now suspect that getting these two to make up may be one of the big goals.

I am sincerely hoping the third volume does not get delayed a year, as it’s hard when they’re so far apart to remember everything. Still, a decent read, and I think it only runs to 5 books, so not a huge money sink.

Looks Like a Job for a Maid! The Tales of a Dismissed Supermaid, Vol. 1

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By Yasuaki Mikami and Kinta. Released in Japan as “Maid nara Touzen desu. Nureginu wo Kiserareta Bannou Maid-san wa Tabi ni Deru Koto ni Shimashita” by Earth Star Novel. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Sylvia Gallagher.

It’s always interesting to see how light novels deal with the age old problem of “my workplace is horrible and no one appreciates me”. Sometimes they just have the person die and end up in another world where they can get cool powers and women. But this is a J-Novel Heart title, despite an utter lack of romance, so instead we get something a bit more villainess-adjacent. Here we have the classic “I work and I slave but everyone abuses me except one or two people” plot, which inevitably begins with the protagonist being framed for something she didn’t do and thrown out. And indeed, that’s what happens. But guess what? When you leave a bad place of employment, sometimes it’s good for you! You can help others achieve their dream. You can show off your skills. And you can try to get a sense of who you are as a person besides your job. Nina has trouble with that last one.

Nina is a maid who can do anything, thanks to the harsh training of an unseen mentor. But sadly, the training did not include self-confidence, so when she’s framed for breaking an expensive vase, she has to leave without even a reference. Deciding to travel (she’s got money as she never spends anything on herself), she comes across a rookie magician who has the talent for Level 5 magic but can’t seem to access it; an inventor whose parents are famous but who seems to be stuck on that one final thing that will make her go down in history; and a beastgirl working in a mine who’s trying her best but finds all food in the area makes her sick. All three of them have their lives turned upside down by Nina, who is bad at doing things for herself, but when it comes to helping others, there’s literally nothing she cannot do.

This has a lot of fun aspects to it. Technically it’s an isekai, though Nina is not the one with memories from Japan. Emily and Astrid are nice and relatable, and once Nina solves their immediate problems they are determined to travel with her so that she stays out of trouble. Spoiler: she does not. All four of the young women in this book suffer to a degree from low self-esteem – for Emily and Astrid it’s because of their continued failures in their profession, and with Tien it’s due to starvation, but also the fact that her parents abandoned her and she doesn’t know why. Nina, though, is the toughest nut to crack, and I really love that Emily spots what Nina needs right now – a family. Nina needs to find a way to define herself that isn’t “maid”, and so far she just can’t do that. Honestly, I suspect given the narrative of the series she won’t be able to, but the effort to do so is the important part.

Upcoming books in the series make it sound a bit like Make My Abilities Average only with less work-obsessed orphans. (OK, there *is* a work-obsessed orphan in this, but she becomes one of the party.) If you love found family stories and don’t mind a maid who can solve any problem almost immediately, this is a great deal of fun.